By Gareth Vaughan
Kiwibank and SBS Bank have backed up their wins in Roy Morgan Research's inaugural New Zealand Customer Satisfaction Awards by again winning the major bank of the year and financial institution of the year categories, respectively, for 2012.
Roy Morgan Research's Asia-Pacific regional director, Debnath Guharoy, told interest.co.nz that being New Zealand owned seemed to have a lot to do with the two banks' strong customer satisfaction levels.
"With the global financial crisis people everywhere are tending to look inwards," Guharoy said.."There are people who have travelled, worked with the big global banks, learnt and come back home and they're lifting the game. Everywhere we're becoming more nationalistic. And if we're satisfied with something that is homegrown, and home-owned, then there's an affinity, an instinct, to support it."
"And unless there is something very serious to complain about, we tend not to complain about what we call our own," he added.
"I can't in any way prove with hard numbers that this is the fact, but there are other indicators within the research that we do continuously that would lead me to say that this is what is happening in countries as diverse as New Zealand and Indonesia."
"You're seeing a greater sense of pride, a greater sense of confidence in what is local than what used to be, say 10 years ago," Guharoy said.
The major bank category contestants were ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Kiwibank, National Bank, and Westpac. Average customer satisfaction among the six big banks in New Zealand was 79.5%.
Contenders for the financial institution gong included the big six banks, plus TSB Bank, AA Financial Services, AMI, AMP, AXA, GE Money, the Co-operative Bank, Rabobank, State, Southern Cross Healthcare, and Tower. The range of satisfaction with the financial institutions was 55% to 95% with the insurers at the bottom, and the likes of SBS and TSB at the top.
'Kiwi is good'
Guharoy said the common theme Roy Morgan was seeing, over the two years of its awards, was "kiwi is good".
He described customer satisfaction as the "holy grail of any service business".
"If you have satisfied customers you keep them. If you have unhappy customers the desire (for them) to look elsewhere is instinctively high."
Across the 24 categories in which Roy Morgan handed out awards, Guharoy said the fiercest competition was in the car, banking, and airline industries. In these categories the margins between the contenders tended to be small. In a smaller field like the supermarket sector, where there are few operators, the margins were wider.
Customer Satisfaction Awards Winners – 2012
Financial Institution of the Year - SBS Bank
Major Bank of the Year - Kiwibank
Car Manufacturer of the Year - Suzuki
Quick Service Restaurants of the Year - Subway
Chemist / Pharmacy of the Year - Amcal
Clothing Store of the Year - Hallensteins
Coffee Shop of the Year - Starbucks
Department Store of the Year - Kirkcaldie & Stains
Furniture / Electrical Store of the Year - Dick Smith
Hardware Store of the Year - ITM
Liquor Store of the Year - The Mill Liquorsave
Music / Book Store of the Year - Take Note
Shoe Store of the Year - Overland
Sports Store of the Year - Hunting & Fishing
Supermarket of the Year - Countdown
Handset Provider of the Year - Apple iPhone
Home Phone Provider of the Year - Telecom
Home Internet Service Provider of the Year - Paradise
Mobile Phone Service Provider of the Year - 2degrees
Domestic Airline of the Year - Air New Zealand
Hotel And Resort of the Year - Hilton
International Airline of the Year - Emirates
Electricity of the Year - Energy Online
Gas of the Year - Nova Energy
Roy Morgan collects satisfaction ratings through its annual Single Source survey of about 12,000 New Zealanders. See Roy Morgan's press release on its 2012 awards here. And see our story on the Roy Morgan 2011 awards here.
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